Complete listed story — includes the ending
Life Is Strange
In October 2013, 18-year-old Maxine "Max" Caulfield (Hannah Telle) returns to Arcadia Bay, Oregon, to attend Blackwell Academy. During her photography class with teacher Mark Jefferson (Derek Phillips), Max experiences a vivid and catastrophic precognition of a tornado destroying a lighthouse and approaching the town. Leaving for the restroom to regain her composure, she takes a photograph of a butterfly on her camera, and then witnesses classmate Nathan Prescott (Nik Shriner) shoot and kill a young woman in a fit of rage. In a sudden effort, Max develops the ability to rewind time and saves the woman, revealed to be her childhood friend Chloe Price (Ashly Burch). The two reunite and visit the lighthouse, where Max reveals her powers to Chloe. Strange weather patterns and other anomalies begin occurring throughout Arcadia Bay.
The next day, Max's class is disrupted when Kate Marsh (Dayeanne Hutton), a fellow student who has been bullied over a viral video depicting her kissing several students at a party, attempts suicide by jumping from the roof of the girls’ dormitory. After rewinding time and reaching the roof, Max either saves Kate or fails to convince her not to jump. Following the incident, Max resolves to uncover what happened to Kate and to Chloe's missing friend Rachel Amber. That night, Max and Chloe break into the principal's office, discovering evidence that implicates Nathan. The following morning, they sneak into the motorhome of drug dealer Frank Bowers (Daniel Bonjour), learning that Rachel had been romantically involved with him, a fact she kept from Chloe. Max later examines a childhood photo of herself and Chloe and is unexpectedly transported back to the day it was taken. She prevents Chloe's father, William (Joe Ochman), from dying in a traffic accident, inadvertently creating an alternate reality in which William is alive but Chloe is paralysed from the neck down due to a separate accident. Heartbroken, Max uses the photo to undo her actions and return to the present timeline.
Continuing their investigation, Max and Chloe discover a bunker beneath a derelict barn owned by the Prescotts, where they find binders containing photos of restrained young women. Among the images are photos of Kate and, to their horror, photographs depicting Rachel's corpse being buried. The pair rush to a scrapyard, where they discover Rachel's remains, devastating Chloe. They later attend a school party to confront Nathan, who sends a text message threatening to destroy the evidence. Returning to the scrapyard, they are ambushed by Jefferson, who anaesthetises Max and kills Chloe with a gunshot to the head. Max awakens in the bunker, where Jefferson reveals himself to be a psychopathic serial killer obsessed with abducting and photographing young women, explaining his desire to "capture the moment innocence turns into corruption." He reveals that Nathan had been acting under his influence and had accidentally killed Rachel by overdosing her. Having murdered Nathan himself, Jefferson plans to kill Max once he has completed photographing her.
Max escapes by entering a photo and returns to the beginning of the week during Jefferson's class. She alerts David Madsen (Don McManus), Chloe's stepfather and Blackwell Academy's head of security, preventing Chloe's death and leading to the arrest of both Jefferson and Nathan. Max travels to San Francisco with Principal Wells in Jefferson’s place, where one of her photographs is displayed in an art gallery. While there, she calls Chloe and realizes that the storm has still reached Arcadia Bay. Max returns to the moment she took the winning photo, leading her through multiple collapsing timelines that manifest as a dream-like nightmare.
Reuniting with Chloe at the lighthouse, Max blames her own decision to save Chloe earlier in the week for causing the storm. Having kept Max's butterfly photo, Chloe then offers Max a final choice: use the photo to rewind time and allow Chloe to be killed to save Arcadia Bay, or remain in the current timeline and allow the town's destruction to save Chloe. Chloe believes that there are people in the town who deserve to live rather than die for her own survival, including her mother Joyce, and implores Max to sacrifice her. Max protests, not wanting to lose her, but Chloe urges her to make the choice.
If Max chooses to sacrifice Chloe, she reluctantly returns to the Blackwell restroom at the beginning of the week where she listens as Nathan shoots Chloe dead. Nathan and Jefferson are arrested, the storm never occurs, and Max attends Chloe's funeral with Joyce, David and the rest of the town.
If Max chooses to sacrifice Arcadia Bay, she destroys the photo, and she and Chloe watch as the storm devastates the town before dissipating. The next morning, Max and Chloe leave the ruined town together.
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm
In her Oregon hometown of Arcadia Bay in 2010, 16-year-old Chloe Price (Rhianna DeVries; Ashly Burch in Farewell) sneaks into a punk rock concert at an abandoned lumber mill. Conflict arises with two men inside, but she evades them when schoolmate Rachel Amber (Kylie Brown) causes a distraction. The next day, Chloe and Rachel reunite at Blackwell Academy and decide to ditch class, stowing away on a cargo train and ending up at a lookout point. They people-watch through a viewfinder and see a man and woman kiss in the park, which upsets Rachel. They steal wine from local campers and take a walk to a scrapyard. Chloe confronts Rachel about her change in mood, but to no avail. Rachel later confesses that she witnessed her father, James (Patrick Finerty), through the viewfinder, cheating on her mother Rose (Kelly Handcock). Rachel destroys a family photo in a burning trash bin, and in a fit of rage kicks it over, igniting a wildfire.
The next day, Chloe and Rachel are reprimanded by Principal Raymond Wells (Marcus Oliver) for ditching school. Afterwards, Chloe has an argument with her mother Joyce (Bootsie Park) and the latter's boyfriend, David Madsen (D.W. McCann). She then hides out at the scrapyard where she finds an old truck in need of repair. Chloe later receives a call from local drug dealer Frank Bowers (Nick Apostolides), who arranges a meeting to discuss settling her debt. Chloe agrees to repay him by helping him steal money from her classmate Drew North (Trey Hutch), who owes Frank a large sum. However, Chloe learns that Drew is being violently extorted by another drug dealer, Damon Merrick (Kyle Williams). Later, when a student is unable to participate in the school's theater production of The Tempest due to road closures caused by the wildfire, Chloe reluctantly takes on the role opposite Rachel. After the play, they decide to leave Arcadia Bay with the truck from the scrapyard, and return to Rachel's house to pack. Following a confrontation there, James reveals that the woman they saw him kissing was Rachel's biological mother.
Rachel is told that her biological mother, Sera Gearhardt (Andrea Fletcher), is a drug addict, and that on the day her father kissed her, he had rejected Sera's plea to reunite with Rachel, after she adopted her away years before. Rachel vows to find Sera with Chloe's help, against James' wishes. Chloe contacts Frank, who agrees to meet her at the scrapyard. She repairs the truck there before Rachel arrives. They are ambushed by Damon, who stabs Rachel after he realises she is the district attorney's daughter. Surviving the wound, Rachel recovers at the hospital, while Chloe continues the search. She investigates James' office for clues about Sera, instead revealing that James is crooked and has been in contact with Damon. Chloe uses James' phone to convince Damon to disclose where Sera is located, and finds out that Damon has kidnapped her for ransom. She races to Damon to pay him off, but learns, when she reaches him, that James wanted him to kill Sera. Frank appears and fights off Damon, after which Sera entreats Chloe to never tell Rachel about James' actions. Back at the hospital, Chloe is faced with a choice: take matters into her own hands by telling Rachel everything or protect her from the truth. In the aftermath, Chloe and Rachel remain best friends, while Rachel also potentially reunites with Sera (if Chloe chooses to tell the truth). In a post-credits scene, Chloe attempts to contact Rachel, but she does not pick up her phone, as she partakes in a photography session, hinting at her eventual demise at the hands of Nathan Prescott and Mark Jefferson.
Farewell
In 2008, 13-year-old Max Caulfield (Hannah Telle) struggles to break the news to Chloe (Ashly Burch) that her family is moving to Seattle in three days. The two find a recording of their 8-year old selves speaking of a buried treasure. After finding the map and an amulet in the attic, Max and Chloe discover the treasure's spot, only to find that Chloe's father, William (Joe Ochman; Peter D. Michael in main episodes), had put their time capsule in a keg, along with his own recording, for safekeeping. Max can choose to either tell Chloe the truth, or hide it; their plans for the rest of the day are cut short when Joyce returns home and informs them that William died in a car crash. Max attends William's funeral days later and leaves for Seattle with her parents immediately after, leaving Chloe in grief.
Life Is Strange 2
In October 2016, 16-year-old Sean Diaz lives with his 9-year-old brother Daniel and father Esteban (Amador Plascencia) in Seattle, after their mother Karen (Jolene Andersen) left them following Daniel's birth. The day the game begins, Sean intervenes when their neighbor Brett (Robert Shearer) harasses Daniel, inadvertently injuring Brett as a police officer passes by. Esteban arrives at the scene and is shot and killed by the officer. A sudden explosion damages the environment, and Sean flees with Daniel before more police arrive. Now fugitives, Sean aims to take them to their father's Mexican hometown of Puerto Lobos. Near Mount Rainier, the brothers are recognized by the owner of a gas station, but escape with the help of travel blogger Brody Holloway (Bolen Walker). Brody arranges a motel room for the brothers, where Daniel learns of Esteban's death and becomes angry, revealing he has latent telekinetic abilities that were the cause of the explosion in Seattle.
The brothers then spend a month at an abandoned cabin, where Sean helps train Daniel's ability. After Daniel falls ill, Sean decides to take him to their maternal grandparents, Claire (Nancy Cronig) and Stephen Reynolds (John O'Connell), in nearby Beaver Creek, Oregon. At Beaver Creek, Claire and Stephen accept the brothers and agree to hide them, despite their concerns. Daniel also befriends Chris (Chandler Mantione), an imaginative boy that lives next door, after using his powers to save him from falling from his treehouse; Chris comes to think he has superpowers. Daniel coerces Sean into breaking into Karen's old room to learn more about her. The police soon arrive on word that Sean and Daniel have been sighted in public or traced from interactions. Claire, Stephen, and Chris then help the brothers to escape.
In February 2017, Sean and Daniel join freighthoppers Finn (Matthew Gallenstein) and Cassidy (Sarah J. Bartholomew) traveling to California, and the four secure paying jobs at a cannabis farm in Humboldt County, California for a cultivator named Merrill (Ben Jurand). Sean spends more time with their new friends, leaving Daniel frustrated and feeling abandoned. One payday, Merrill discovers Daniel snooping around and fires the brothers without paying them. Daniel accidentally reveals his telekinesis to the others, and Finn comes up with a plan to use it to steal money from Merrill. Sean either joins Finn and Daniel in breaking into Merrill's house or follows them upon learning that they went behind his back. Regardless, the heist fails, and Merrill threatens the group with a shotgun. In a panicked rage, Daniel destroys Merrill's house with his powers, knocking out everyone else and causing Sean's left eye to be impaled.
Sean wakes from a coma two months later under FBI custody. He finds a letter from Jacob (David Valdes), one of the farmworkers, in which he writes that he found Daniel after the accident and took him to Haven Point, Nevada – an isolated commune where he was raised. Sean escapes from custody and travels to Haven Point. There, he finds Daniel has been taken in by Lisbeth (Victoria Hansen), the leader of a religious cult, who is presenting Daniel's powers as a divine gift to gain devoted followers and manipulate Daniel into submission. After an initial attempt to recover Daniel, Sean meets Karen, whom Jacob had also contacted for help. Sean and Karen begin to reconnect and establish a plan with Jacob to save him. They ultimately convince Daniel to come with them, and the church burns down.
Sean and Daniel travel with Karen to the secluded community of Away, Arizona, and spend the next seven weeks resting, having fun, and making last arrangements before crossing into Mexico. Sean befriends a few residents, including David Madsen (D.W. McCann) – a former security officer from Arcadia Bay, Oregon. The brothers learn that authorities have tracked their location, but Karen allows her sons to escape by staying behind to be arrested. The two arrive at the Mexico–United States barrier, which Daniel breaks open with his powers. However, before they can cross, Daniel is abruptly wounded by a bullet from two vigilantes, and the group is captured by the local police shortly after.
The next morning, July 4th, Daniel breaks Sean out of interrogation, and the two flee to a Mexican port of entry but find it blockaded by FBI and United States Border Patrol agents. Sean must decide whether he and Daniel should turn themselves in or use Daniel's powers to force their way through. The outcome of this decision depends on whether Daniel was raised to follow the rules of society (High Morality) or to put himself and Sean above all else (Low Morality).
Blood Brothers Ending:If Daniel accepts Sean's decision to cross the border, he uses his powers to fight the opposing police force and destroy the crossing. Once the road is clear, both brothers make it to Mexico alive. They open a garage in Puerto Lobos, like their father had, and settle down as fugitives, relying on Daniel's powers to survive and stay safe.
Parting Ways Ending:If Daniel rejects Sean's decision to cross the border, he reluctantly uses his powers to help Sean drive through the blockade, then surrenders himself to the agents. Daniel lives with Claire and Stephen under police surveillance, while Sean lives in Puerto Lobos as a fugitive, either alone or with Cassidy or Finn, occasionally sending Daniel postcards.
Redemption Ending:If Daniel accepts Sean's decision to surrender, they both let the agents apprehend them. Sean is taken into custody, while Daniel lives with Claire and Stephen before the two reunite fifteen years later, when Sean is released from prison. Afterwards, Sean and Daniel go camping in the woods for a night in an attempt to rebuild their bond as brothers.
Lone Wolf Ending:If Daniel rejects Sean's decision to surrender, he becomes desperate and uses his powers to force them both across the border anyway. The scene ends with Sean shot dead by the police and Daniel left alone in Mexico. Daniel grows up in Puerto Lobos as a fugitive, using his powers to steal, defend himself, and survive on his own.
Life Is Strange: True Colors
In April 2019, Alexandra "Alex" Chen leaves a foster care group home after eight years to reunite with her brother Gabriel "Gabe" Chen in Haven Springs, Colorado. Gabe shows Alex around Haven; many of the townspeople are employed by Typhon, a mining company. Subsequently, Alex meets park ranger Ryan Lucan, radio DJ Stephanie "Steph" Gingrich, local bar owner and Ryan's father Jedediah "Jed" Lucan, flower shop owner Eleanor Lethe, her granddaughter Riley, Gabe's girlfriend Charlotte Harmon and her son Ethan, the town's sheriff deputy Jason Pike, taxidermist Reginald "Duckie" McCalister III, Typhon Mining's mine safety manager Mac Loudon, and Typhon's operations director Diane Jacobs.
While Gabe shows Alex his apartment and offers it as a gift to her, they are interrupted by Mac, who wrongfully believes Gabe is having an affair with his girlfriend Riley and attacks him. The altercation causes Alex's "emotions" to snap, resulting in her attacking Mac to defend Gabe. Later, Ryan informs Alex and Gabe that Ethan has gone missing. The three search the forest for Ethan as Gabe calls Typhon to cancel a scheduled blast in the nearby mountain. Alex rescues Ethan, but the blast goes ahead anyway; the resulting landslide knocks Gabe into a canyon, plummeting him to his death.
Attempting to find answers about the circumstances around Gabe's death, Alex uses her powers on Mac, who was working the night of the explosion and claims not to have received Gabe's call. She discovers that Mac attempted to act on the call, but his superiors at Typhon overruled and let the blast go off; the company is now actively covering up their role in Gabe's death and forcing him to keep quiet. Enlisting the aid of Ryan and Steph, Alex turns her attention to Diane and steals her USB drive, which contains a recording of Gabe's call and a message from Diane's superior coercing her to ignore the situation and proceed as planned. Alex is later arrested by Pike for theft and computer fraud, but is released after either signing an affidavit to drop her investigation or removing Pike's fear of Typhon with her powers.
Jed takes Alex to an abandoned mineshaft and confesses that twelve years ago, he was at fault for the deaths of several miners he oversaw as a foreman, which caused him to make a deal with Typhon to cover up the tragedy to protect himself and his family. He shoots at Alex; although he narrowly misses, the gunshot causes her to fall into the shaft.
Alex survives the fall but is badly injured. She experiences flashbacks of her childhood, showing her mother's death from cancer, her father's abandonment, and her time in foster care. Searching for a way out, she finds the site where the miners died and discovers her childhood necklace, realizing her father was one of the men killed in the accident. Escaping the mine, Alex barges into the town council meeting and reveals Jed's role in both the mining disaster and Gabe's death and Typhon's attempts to cover it up, while Jed and Diane attempt to discredit her. After Steph, Charlotte, Duckie, Eleanor, Pike, and Ryan either support or side against Alex based on her past choices, Alex uses her powers on Jed, resulting in Jed seeing the truth of his actions and confessing to the police, ending Typhon's operations.
Following these events, Alex visualizes a conversation with a vision of Gabe and ultimately decides whether to remain in Haven Springs or leave to seek adventure as a musician, either alone or alongside Ryan or Steph.
Wavelengths
In March 2018, Steph gets a job as the DJ host of Haven Springs' KRCT radio station after having lied about her work experience and manages the record store that contains the broadcasting room. She stays in Haven after breaking up with her bandmate Izzie from Seattle, where she moved shortly after the events of the first Life Is Strange game, and is forced to take the job after losing a foosball game to Gabe, preventing her from moving to Denver as she originally planned. Over a year's time, Steph modernizes the radio program and record store and uses her time to search for a date and play a tabletop game with her former best friend Mikey North (Dillon Winfrey, also reprising his role from Before the Storm). If Chloe Price was sacrificed in the first game, Steph mourns Chloe's and Rachel Amber's death; if Arcadia Bay was sacrificed, Steph mourns her mother and Mikey's brother Drew's death due to the storm; both endings culminate in her lashing out at Mikey on the fifth anniversary of the tumultuous events. When Mikey professes how he needs her in his life as his best friend, Steph then apologizes and admits that she stops people from getting close because she is too traumatized from all the past pain. She admits she needs Mikey too and vows to become a better friend to him. On New Year's Eve, she searches for a new job as a DJ back in Seattle, follows her friends' scavenger hunt, and is asked by Gabe about contacting his sister Alex. In April 2019, Steph sees Alex arrive in the record store (as seen in the main game).
Life Is Strange: Double Exposure
In December 2023, Max Caulfield has relocated to Lakeport, Vermont, where she is working as a photographer-in-residence at Caledon University. Her decision to never use her time-rewinding powers again stems from the consequences she faced in her past. On December 4, after spending time with her friends Safiya "Safi" Llewellyn-Fayyad and Moses Murphy, Max is devastated to find Safi dead from a gunshot wound. Max isolates herself in grief until she discovers a new ability: the power to "pulse" into an alternate timeline where Safi is still alive. This ability soon evolves, allowing Max to travel between these parallel timelines at will. In the "Living" timeline, Safi's car is vandalized, indicating she might still be in danger, prompting Max to investigate and try to uncover the killer in the "Dead" timeline.
During her investigation, Max meets several residents of the university, including Yasmin Fayyad, the university president and Safi's mother; Amanda Thomas, a waitress at the local bar, Snapping Turtle; Vinh Lang, Yasmin's administrative assistant and leader of the Abraxas secret society; Gwen Hunter, a professor specializing in Creative Non-Fiction; Lucas Colmenero, head of the Literature Department; and students Loretta Rice, Reggie Kagan, and Diamond Washington. In the Living timeline, Max finds Gwen and Lucas implicated in separate incidents they did not commit, while in the Dead timeline, Reggie claims to have seen a doppelganger of himself. Moses admits to stealing Safi's camera from the crime scene, which Max retrieves and hides from Detective Vince Alderman. This leads to Max's discovery of a new power: "entangling" objects between timelines. The camera reveals a photo of Max pointing a gun at Safi, causing Moses to believe Max is the killer.
Max's attempt to use her rewind power on the photo triggers a vision of a future storm in Caledon, similar to the one in Arcadia Bay, with Safi begging Max to shoot her to end the chaos. Max reveals her powers to Moses, regaining his trust. They encounter an apparition of Alderman, and when the real Alderman arrives, the two versions of him interact and vanish from existence. In the Living timeline, Max learns that Gwen canceled Safi's book deal because it focused on Maya Okada, a former student and Safi's best friend who committed suicide after Lucas plagiarized her work. Vinh and Safi failed to defend Maya, leading to her death. Back home, Max confronts an intruder, who turns out to be Safi with shapeshifting powers, having impersonated Gwen and Lucas to sabotage their careers for their involvement in Maya's death and canceling her book deal.
Max and Safi agree to expose Lucas' plagiarism at a Krampus-themed party using their powers. Although successful, Lucas tells Safi that Yasmin ordered the cancellation of her book, and that Gwen was only following her demands, leading Safi to confront Yasmin, who claims to have done this for her daughter's safety. Safi's powers spiral out of control, unleashing the storm from Max's vision. Max uses her rewind power to take them back to December 4th, retaining their memories but bringing the storm with them. Safi pleads with Max to kill her to end it, but Max chooses to face the storm together. Within the storm, they find themselves in a timeline merging Caledon and Max's memories of Arcadia Bay that was created by the mixture of their powers, where Max uses her polaroid camera to separate Safi from her friends, whose minds are merged with Safi.
Max and Safi return to the real world, where the Living and Dead timelines have combined and the storm has stopped. Safi decides to leave Caledon to seek others with powers, asking Max to wait for her return and help her harness her abilities, though Max worries that Safi's plan could affect their and other people's lives. Max must choose whether to accept or decline Safi's request. Max then reveals her powers to her friends at Caledon, and vows to stay and help them navigate their future together.
In a post-credits scene, Diamond exhibits excessive nose-bleeding and encounters Safi, who offers to help her seek answers.
In October 2013, 18-year-old Maxine "Max" Caulfield (Hannah Telle) returns to Arcadia Bay, Oregon, to attend Blackwell Academy. During her photography class with teacher Mark Jefferson (Derek Phillips), Max experiences a vivid and catastrophic precognition of a tornado destroying a lighthouse and approaching the town. Leaving for the restroom to regain her composure, she takes a photograph of a butterfly on her camera, and then witnesses classmate Nathan Prescott (Nik Shriner) shoot and kill a young woman in a fit of rage. In a sudden effort, Max develops the ability to rewind time and saves the woman, revealed to be her childhood friend Chloe Price (Ashly Burch). The two reunite and visit the lighthouse, where Max reveals her powers to Chloe. Strange weather patterns and other anomalies begin occurring throughout Arcadia Bay.
The next day, Max's class is disrupted when Kate Marsh (Dayeanne Hutton), a fellow student who has been bullied over a viral video depicting her kissing several students at a party, attempts suicide by jumping from the roof of the girls’ dormitory. After rewinding time and reaching the roof, Max either saves Kate or fails to convince her not to jump. Following the incident, Max resolves to uncover what happened to Kate and to Chloe's missing friend Rachel Amber. That night, Max and Chloe break into the principal's office, discovering evidence that implicates Nathan. The following morning, they sneak into the motorhome of drug dealer Frank Bowers (Daniel Bonjour), learning that Rachel had been romantically involved with him, a fact she kept from Chloe. Max later examines a childhood photo of herself and Chloe and is unexpectedly transported back to the day it was taken. She prevents Chloe's father, William (Joe Ochman), from dying in a traffic accident, inadvertently creating an alternate reality in which William is alive but Chloe is paralysed from the neck down due to a separate accident. Heartbroken, Max uses the photo to undo her actions and return to the present timeline.
Continuing their investigation, Max and Chloe discover a bunker beneath a derelict barn owned by the Prescotts, where they find binders containing photos of restrained young women. Among the images are photos of Kate and, to their horror, photographs depicting Rachel's corpse being buried. The pair rush to a scrapyard, where they discover Rachel's remains, devastating Chloe. They later attend a school party to confront Nathan, who sends a text message threatening to destroy the evidence. Returning to the scrapyard, they are ambushed by Jefferson, who anaesthetises Max and kills Chloe with a gunshot to the head. Max awakens in the bunker, where Jefferson reveals himself to be a psychopathic serial killer obsessed with abducting and photographing young women, explaining his desire to "capture the moment innocence turns into corruption." He reveals that Nathan had been acting under his influence and had accidentally killed Rachel by overdosing her. Having murdered Nathan himself, Jefferson plans to kill Max once he has completed photographing her.
Max escapes by entering a photo and returns to the beginning of the week during Jefferson's class. She alerts David Madsen (Don McManus), Chloe's stepfather and Blackwell Academy's head of security, preventing Chloe's death and leading to the arrest of both Jefferson and Nathan. Max travels to San Francisco with Principal Wells in Jefferson’s place, where one of her photographs is displayed in an art gallery. While there, she calls Chloe and realizes that the storm has still reached Arcadia Bay. Max returns to the moment she took the winning photo, leading her through multiple collapsing timelines that manifest as a dream-like nightmare.
Reuniting with Chloe at the lighthouse, Max blames her own decision to save Chloe earlier in the week for causing the storm. Having kept Max's butterfly photo, Chloe then offers Max a final choice: use the photo to rewind time and allow Chloe to be killed to save Arcadia Bay, or remain in the current timeline and allow the town's destruction to save Chloe. Chloe believes that there are people in the town who deserve to live rather than die for her own survival, including her mother Joyce, and implores Max to sacrifice her. Max protests, not wanting to lose her, but Chloe urges her to make the choice.
If Max chooses to sacrifice Chloe, she reluctantly returns to the Blackwell restroom at the beginning of the week where she listens as Nathan shoots Chloe dead. Nathan and Jefferson are arrested, the storm never occurs, and Max attends Chloe's funeral with Joyce, David and the rest of the town.
If Max chooses to sacrifice Arcadia Bay, she destroys the photo, and she and Chloe watch as the storm devastates the town before dissipating. The next morning, Max and Chloe leave the ruined town together.
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm
In her Oregon hometown of Arcadia Bay in 2010, 16-year-old Chloe Price (Rhianna DeVries; Ashly Burch in Farewell) sneaks into a punk rock concert at an abandoned lumber mill. Conflict arises with two men inside, but she evades them when schoolmate Rachel Amber (Kylie Brown) causes a distraction. The next day, Chloe and Rachel reunite at Blackwell Academy and decide to ditch class, stowing away on a cargo train and ending up at a lookout point. They people-watch through a viewfinder and see a man and woman kiss in the park, which upsets Rachel. They steal wine from local campers and take a walk to a scrapyard. Chloe confronts Rachel about her change in mood, but to no avail. Rachel later confesses that she witnessed her father, James (Patrick Finerty), through the viewfinder, cheating on her mother Rose (Kelly Handcock). Rachel destroys a family photo in a burning trash bin, and in a fit of rage kicks it over, igniting a wildfire.
The next day, Chloe and Rachel are reprimanded by Principal Raymond Wells (Marcus Oliver) for ditching school. Afterwards, Chloe has an argument with her mother Joyce (Bootsie Park) and the latter's boyfriend, David Madsen (D.W. McCann). She then hides out at the scrapyard where she finds an old truck in need of repair. Chloe later receives a call from local drug dealer Frank Bowers (Nick Apostolides), who arranges a meeting to discuss settling her debt. Chloe agrees to repay him by helping him steal money from her classmate Drew North (Trey Hutch), who owes Frank a large sum. However, Chloe learns that Drew is being violently extorted by another drug dealer, Damon Merrick (Kyle Williams). Later, when a student is unable to participate in the school's theater production of The Tempest due to road closures caused by the wildfire, Chloe reluctantly takes on the role opposite Rachel. After the play, they decide to leave Arcadia Bay with the truck from the scrapyard, and return to Rachel's house to pack. Following a confrontation there, James reveals that the woman they saw him kissing was Rachel's biological mother.
Rachel is told that her biological mother, Sera Gearhardt (Andrea Fletcher), is a drug addict, and that on the day her father kissed her, he had rejected Sera's plea to reunite with Rachel, after she adopted her away years before. Rachel vows to find Sera with Chloe's help, against James' wishes. Chloe contacts Frank, who agrees to meet her at the scrapyard. She repairs the truck there before Rachel arrives. They are ambushed by Damon, who stabs Rachel after he realises she is the district attorney's daughter. Surviving the wound, Rachel recovers at the hospital, while Chloe continues the search. She investigates James' office for clues about Sera, instead revealing that James is crooked and has been in contact with Damon. Chloe uses James' phone to convince Damon to disclose where Sera is located, and finds out that Damon has kidnapped her for ransom. She races to Damon to pay him off, but learns, when she reaches him, that James wanted him to kill Sera. Frank appears and fights off Damon, after which Sera entreats Chloe to never tell Rachel about James' actions. Back at the hospital, Chloe is faced with a choice: take matters into her own hands by telling Rachel everything or protect her from the truth. In the aftermath, Chloe and Rachel remain best friends, while Rachel also potentially reunites with Sera (if Chloe chooses to tell the truth). In a post-credits scene, Chloe attempts to contact Rachel, but she does not pick up her phone, as she partakes in a photography session, hinting at her eventual demise at the hands of Nathan Prescott and Mark Jefferson.
Farewell
In 2008, 13-year-old Max Caulfield (Hannah Telle) struggles to break the news to Chloe (Ashly Burch) that her family is moving to Seattle in three days. The two find a recording of their 8-year old selves speaking of a buried treasure. After finding the map and an amulet in the attic, Max and Chloe discover the treasure's spot, only to find that Chloe's father, William (Joe Ochman; Peter D. Michael in main episodes), had put their time capsule in a keg, along with his own recording, for safekeeping. Max can choose to either tell Chloe the truth, or hide it; their plans for the rest of the day are cut short when Joyce returns home and informs them that William died in a car crash. Max attends William's funeral days later and leaves for Seattle with her parents immediately after, leaving Chloe in grief.
Life Is Strange 2
In October 2016, 16-year-old Sean Diaz lives with his 9-year-old brother Daniel and father Esteban (Amador Plascencia) in Seattle, after their mother Karen (Jolene Andersen) left them following Daniel's birth. The day the game begins, Sean intervenes when their neighbor Brett (Robert Shearer) harasses Daniel, inadvertently injuring Brett as a police officer passes by. Esteban arrives at the scene and is shot and killed by the officer. A sudden explosion damages the environment, and Sean flees with Daniel before more police arrive. Now fugitives, Sean aims to take them to their father's Mexican hometown of Puerto Lobos. Near Mount Rainier, the brothers are recognized by the owner of a gas station, but escape with the help of travel blogger Brody Holloway (Bolen Walker). Brody arranges a motel room for the brothers, where Daniel learns of Esteban's death and becomes angry, revealing he has latent telekinetic abilities that were the cause of the explosion in Seattle.
The brothers then spend a month at an abandoned cabin, where Sean helps train Daniel's ability. After Daniel falls ill, Sean decides to take him to their maternal grandparents, Claire (Nancy Cronig) and Stephen Reynolds (John O'Connell), in nearby Beaver Creek, Oregon. At Beaver Creek, Claire and Stephen accept the brothers and agree to hide them, despite their concerns. Daniel also befriends Chris (Chandler Mantione), an imaginative boy that lives next door, after using his powers to save him from falling from his treehouse; Chris comes to think he has superpowers. Daniel coerces Sean into breaking into Karen's old room to learn more about her. The police soon arrive on word that Sean and Daniel have been sighted in public or traced from interactions. Claire, Stephen, and Chris then help the brothers to escape.
In February 2017, Sean and Daniel join freighthoppers Finn (Matthew Gallenstein) and Cassidy (Sarah J. Bartholomew) traveling to California, and the four secure paying jobs at a cannabis farm in Humboldt County, California for a cultivator named Merrill (Ben Jurand). Sean spends more time with their new friends, leaving Daniel frustrated and feeling abandoned. One payday, Merrill discovers Daniel snooping around and fires the brothers without paying them. Daniel accidentally reveals his telekinesis to the others, and Finn comes up with a plan to use it to steal money from Merrill. Sean either joins Finn and Daniel in breaking into Merrill's house or follows them upon learning that they went behind his back. Regardless, the heist fails, and Merrill threatens the group with a shotgun. In a panicked rage, Daniel destroys Merrill's house with his powers, knocking out everyone else and causing Sean's left eye to be impaled.
Sean wakes from a coma two months later under FBI custody. He finds a letter from Jacob (David Valdes), one of the farmworkers, in which he writes that he found Daniel after the accident and took him to Haven Point, Nevada – an isolated commune where he was raised. Sean escapes from custody and travels to Haven Point. There, he finds Daniel has been taken in by Lisbeth (Victoria Hansen), the leader of a religious cult, who is presenting Daniel's powers as a divine gift to gain devoted followers and manipulate Daniel into submission. After an initial attempt to recover Daniel, Sean meets Karen, whom Jacob had also contacted for help. Sean and Karen begin to reconnect and establish a plan with Jacob to save him. They ultimately convince Daniel to come with them, and the church burns down.
Sean and Daniel travel with Karen to the secluded community of Away, Arizona, and spend the next seven weeks resting, having fun, and making last arrangements before crossing into Mexico. Sean befriends a few residents, including David Madsen (D.W. McCann) – a former security officer from Arcadia Bay, Oregon. The brothers learn that authorities have tracked their location, but Karen allows her sons to escape by staying behind to be arrested. The two arrive at the Mexico–United States barrier, which Daniel breaks open with his powers. However, before they can cross, Daniel is abruptly wounded by a bullet from two vigilantes, and the group is captured by the local police shortly after.
The next morning, July 4th, Daniel breaks Sean out of interrogation, and the two flee to a Mexican port of entry but find it blockaded by FBI and United States Border Patrol agents. Sean must decide whether he and Daniel should turn themselves in or use Daniel's powers to force their way through. The outcome of this decision depends on whether Daniel was raised to follow the rules of society (High Morality) or to put himself and Sean above all else (Low Morality).
Blood Brothers Ending:If Daniel accepts Sean's decision to cross the border, he uses his powers to fight the opposing police force and destroy the crossing. Once the road is clear, both brothers make it to Mexico alive. They open a garage in Puerto Lobos, like their father had, and settle down as fugitives, relying on Daniel's powers to survive and stay safe.
Parting Ways Ending:If Daniel rejects Sean's decision to cross the border, he reluctantly uses his powers to help Sean drive through the blockade, then surrenders himself to the agents. Daniel lives with Claire and Stephen under police surveillance, while Sean lives in Puerto Lobos as a fugitive, either alone or with Cassidy or Finn, occasionally sending Daniel postcards.
Redemption Ending:If Daniel accepts Sean's decision to surrender, they both let the agents apprehend them. Sean is taken into custody, while Daniel lives with Claire and Stephen before the two reunite fifteen years later, when Sean is released from prison. Afterwards, Sean and Daniel go camping in the woods for a night in an attempt to rebuild their bond as brothers.
Lone Wolf Ending:If Daniel rejects Sean's decision to surrender, he becomes desperate and uses his powers to force them both across the border anyway. The scene ends with Sean shot dead by the police and Daniel left alone in Mexico. Daniel grows up in Puerto Lobos as a fugitive, using his powers to steal, defend himself, and survive on his own.
Life Is Strange: True Colors
In April 2019, Alexandra "Alex" Chen leaves a foster care group home after eight years to reunite with her brother Gabriel "Gabe" Chen in Haven Springs, Colorado. Gabe shows Alex around Haven; many of the townspeople are employed by Typhon, a mining company. Subsequently, Alex meets park ranger Ryan Lucan, radio DJ Stephanie "Steph" Gingrich, local bar owner and Ryan's father Jedediah "Jed" Lucan, flower shop owner Eleanor Lethe, her granddaughter Riley, Gabe's girlfriend Charlotte Harmon and her son Ethan, the town's sheriff deputy Jason Pike, taxidermist Reginald "Duckie" McCalister III, Typhon Mining's mine safety manager Mac Loudon, and Typhon's operations director Diane Jacobs.
While Gabe shows Alex his apartment and offers it as a gift to her, they are interrupted by Mac, who wrongfully believes Gabe is having an affair with his girlfriend Riley and attacks him. The altercation causes Alex's "emotions" to snap, resulting in her attacking Mac to defend Gabe. Later, Ryan informs Alex and Gabe that Ethan has gone missing. The three search the forest for Ethan as Gabe calls Typhon to cancel a scheduled blast in the nearby mountain. Alex rescues Ethan, but the blast goes ahead anyway; the resulting landslide knocks Gabe into a canyon, plummeting him to his death.
Attempting to find answers about the circumstances around Gabe's death, Alex uses her powers on Mac, who was working the night of the explosion and claims not to have received Gabe's call. She discovers that Mac attempted to act on the call, but his superiors at Typhon overruled and let the blast go off; the company is now actively covering up their role in Gabe's death and forcing him to keep quiet. Enlisting the aid of Ryan and Steph, Alex turns her attention to Diane and steals her USB drive, which contains a recording of Gabe's call and a message from Diane's superior coercing her to ignore the situation and proceed as planned. Alex is later arrested by Pike for theft and computer fraud, but is released after either signing an affidavit to drop her investigation or removing Pike's fear of Typhon with her powers.
Jed takes Alex to an abandoned mineshaft and confesses that twelve years ago, he was at fault for the deaths of several miners he oversaw as a foreman, which caused him to make a deal with Typhon to cover up the tragedy to protect himself and his family. He shoots at Alex; although he narrowly misses, the gunshot causes her to fall into the shaft.
Alex survives the fall but is badly injured. She experiences flashbacks of her childhood, showing her mother's death from cancer, her father's abandonment, and her time in foster care. Searching for a way out, she finds the site where the miners died and discovers her childhood necklace, realizing her father was one of the men killed in the accident. Escaping the mine, Alex barges into the town council meeting and reveals Jed's role in both the mining disaster and Gabe's death and Typhon's attempts to cover it up, while Jed and Diane attempt to discredit her. After Steph, Charlotte, Duckie, Eleanor, Pike, and Ryan either support or side against Alex based on her past choices, Alex uses her powers on Jed, resulting in Jed seeing the truth of his actions and confessing to the police, ending Typhon's operations.
Following these events, Alex visualizes a conversation with a vision of Gabe and ultimately decides whether to remain in Haven Springs or leave to seek adventure as a musician, either alone or alongside Ryan or Steph.
Wavelengths
In March 2018, Steph gets a job as the DJ host of Haven Springs' KRCT radio station after having lied about her work experience and manages the record store that contains the broadcasting room. She stays in Haven after breaking up with her bandmate Izzie from Seattle, where she moved shortly after the events of the first Life Is Strange game, and is forced to take the job after losing a foosball game to Gabe, preventing her from moving to Denver as she originally planned. Over a year's time, Steph modernizes the radio program and record store and uses her time to search for a date and play a tabletop game with her former best friend Mikey North (Dillon Winfrey, also reprising his role from Before the Storm). If Chloe Price was sacrificed in the first game, Steph mourns Chloe's and Rachel Amber's death; if Arcadia Bay was sacrificed, Steph mourns her mother and Mikey's brother Drew's death due to the storm; both endings culminate in her lashing out at Mikey on the fifth anniversary of the tumultuous events. When Mikey professes how he needs her in his life as his best friend, Steph then apologizes and admits that she stops people from getting close because she is too traumatized from all the past pain. She admits she needs Mikey too and vows to become a better friend to him. On New Year's Eve, she searches for a new job as a DJ back in Seattle, follows her friends' scavenger hunt, and is asked by Gabe about contacting his sister Alex. In April 2019, Steph sees Alex arrive in the record store (as seen in the main game).
Life Is Strange: Double Exposure
In December 2023, Max Caulfield has relocated to Lakeport, Vermont, where she is working as a photographer-in-residence at Caledon University. Her decision to never use her time-rewinding powers again stems from the consequences she faced in her past. On December 4, after spending time with her friends Safiya "Safi" Llewellyn-Fayyad and Moses Murphy, Max is devastated to find Safi dead from a gunshot wound. Max isolates herself in grief until she discovers a new ability: the power to "pulse" into an alternate timeline where Safi is still alive. This ability soon evolves, allowing Max to travel between these parallel timelines at will. In the "Living" timeline, Safi's car is vandalized, indicating she might still be in danger, prompting Max to investigate and try to uncover the killer in the "Dead" timeline.
During her investigation, Max meets several residents of the university, including Yasmin Fayyad, the university president and Safi's mother; Amanda Thomas, a waitress at the local bar, Snapping Turtle; Vinh Lang, Yasmin's administrative assistant and leader of the Abraxas secret society; Gwen Hunter, a professor specializing in Creative Non-Fiction; Lucas Colmenero, head of the Literature Department; and students Loretta Rice, Reggie Kagan, and Diamond Washington. In the Living timeline, Max finds Gwen and Lucas implicated in separate incidents they did not commit, while in the Dead timeline, Reggie claims to have seen a doppelganger of himself. Moses admits to stealing Safi's camera from the crime scene, which Max retrieves and hides from Detective Vince Alderman. This leads to Max's discovery of a new power: "entangling" objects between timelines. The camera reveals a photo of Max pointing a gun at Safi, causing Moses to believe Max is the killer.
Max's attempt to use her rewind power on the photo triggers a vision of a future storm in Caledon, similar to the one in Arcadia Bay, with Safi begging Max to shoot her to end the chaos. Max reveals her powers to Moses, regaining his trust. They encounter an apparition of Alderman, and when the real Alderman arrives, the two versions of him interact and vanish from existence. In the Living timeline, Max learns that Gwen canceled Safi's book deal because it focused on Maya Okada, a former student and Safi's best friend who committed suicide after Lucas plagiarized her work. Vinh and Safi failed to defend Maya, leading to her death. Back home, Max confronts an intruder, who turns out to be Safi with shapeshifting powers, having impersonated Gwen and Lucas to sabotage their careers for their involvement in Maya's death and canceling her book deal.
Max and Safi agree to expose Lucas' plagiarism at a Krampus-themed party using their powers. Although successful, Lucas tells Safi that Yasmin ordered the cancellation of her book, and that Gwen was only following her demands, leading Safi to confront Yasmin, who claims to have done this for her daughter's safety. Safi's powers spiral out of control, unleashing the storm from Max's vision. Max uses her rewind power to take them back to December 4th, retaining their memories but bringing the storm with them. Safi pleads with Max to kill her to end it, but Max chooses to face the storm together. Within the storm, they find themselves in a timeline merging Caledon and Max's memories of Arcadia Bay that was created by the mixture of their powers, where Max uses her polaroid camera to separate Safi from her friends, whose minds are merged with Safi.
Max and Safi return to the real world, where the Living and Dead timelines have combined and the storm has stopped. Safi decides to leave Caledon to seek others with powers, asking Max to wait for her return and help her harness her abilities, though Max worries that Safi's plan could affect their and other people's lives. Max must choose whether to accept or decline Safi's request. Max then reveals her powers to her friends at Caledon, and vows to stay and help them navigate their future together.
In a post-credits scene, Diamond exhibits excessive nose-bleeding and encounters Safi, who offers to help her seek answers.
Sources and content license
Source and revision history ↗ · Exact listed stories combined in catalog order. Sources retain their stated license; formatting and headings adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Life Is Strange (video game). Section headings and formatting adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Life Is Strange: Before the Storm. Section headings and formatting adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Life Is Strange 2. Section headings and formatting adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Life Is Strange: True Colors. Section headings and formatting adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Life Is Strange: Double Exposure. Section headings and formatting adjusted. · Content license